Paths that Have a Heart

TRAVELLING ON THE PATH(S) THAT HAVE A HEART

By: Indra Gunawan

Discourse on spiritual awakening has increasingly and incessantly occurred in our society since the past decade. Many books on this subject have been published. Discussion, seminar and workshop have been largely organized, not only in the advanced countries but also in the developing countries like Indonesia. Some mention the 21st century as the spiritual century.

Some books have become best-seller and brought significant impact. Two of them are the James Redfield’s novel ‘The Celestine Prophecy’- in addition to his non-fiction version entitled ‘An Experiential Guide’ which contains a description essay – and–‘The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success’ by Deepak Chopra, a doctor, an ayurvedhic expert and a productive writer.

‘The Celestine Prophecy’ exposes a critical mass of individual intensively practicing inner searching. It reveals that the number of people involving in this activity is increasing day after day. Seemingly, they begin to realize that life has a purpose and event happen for a reason so they try to search meaning behind each life event. There are, in fact, many’‘meaningful coincidences’, unpredictable coincidences, mystery that can totally change one’s destiny.

To bring about ‘meaningful coincidences’, according to the book, one must maintain an open mind, love others and take care of the nature, be here and now, activate the intuition and imagination and have much hope and prayer.

In his book ‘The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success’, Deepak Chopra urges that we put spiritual laws-which is no other else than the universal laws of nature- in practice. Although Deepak Chopra’s teachings are, in fact, the re-exploration of the ancient teachings of the East such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and some from Christianity, still his re-formulation becomes appropriate because in daily life people tend to live in disharmony with the nature. Aggressiveness, greed and hunger of dominating others and nature are of their life approach. Actually, there is truly a distinctive way towards success, prosperity and happiness that is by implementing the spiritual laws such as the law of pure potentiality, the law of giving, the law of karma, the law of least effort, the law of attention and desire, the law of detachment and the law of dharma.

Those spiritual teachings have become so significant to life as they teach love, morality and ethical ways, in achieving the objective of life. And they believe that happiness and abundance will be gained with effortless ease, love and peace of mind.

Not limited to James Redfield and Deepak Chopra, other spiritual gurus also define the role of energy. Energy in this context is not thermal, mechanical or chemical energy, but life energy. More or less they describe that ‘everything in the universe is made of energy and this energy creates all the forms and substances of what we call our reality’.

Adopting the theory of Quantum Physics, they determine that in the quantum realm, everything is interwoven and inseparable. As energy is the core of our life, one energy is by itself connected and inseparable from others, one people to others. It is stated further that we, humans, can project the energy by focusing our attention in the desired direction, influencing other energy systems and increasing the pace of coincidences in our lives’.

There are also spiritual gurus that distinguish energy between ‘higher vibrations’ and’‘lower vibrations’. What is meant by higher vibration is vibration of consciousness, gratitude, beauty, love, integrity, joy and trust. In contrary ‘lower vibration’ is vibration of anxiety, worry, envy, stress and ego-consciousness. In common term, it is called ‘positive energy’ and’‘negative energy’. Through awareness, practice of visualization and of course, meditation - we can put ourselves more in ‘higher vibration’ state, where it is externally and internally healthier and stress-free.

In fact, those spiritual teachings are meaningful to life as they teach us to live in harmony with others, make a living in ‘win-win’ principles instead of practicing ’‘homo homini lupus’, and to take care of the nature and environment.

Those teachings have similarities with the teachings in Pranic Healing, such as the motto like ‘Energy flows, where attention goes’ which is the basic principle in transferring energy from the healer to the patient or the energy movement beyond the space boundary. The character building in Pranic Healing such as constancy of effort and non-laziness; loving kindness and non-injury; generosity and non-stealing; honesty and justice; humility and self-control; the golden rule of yin and yang could even mutually enrich and complete the existing spiritual teachings.

The established religions (Christianity, Moslem, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism etc.), in fact, teach similar matters. The words and the way how the message is conveyed could be either similar or different. The spiritual teachings often derive inspiration from the essence of the established religions. While established religions are divine revelation, something given and dogmatic, spiritual teachings are the result of human’s struggle to obtain truth, peace, peace of mind and good character. One is from the top and the other one is from the bottom. Top down and bottom up. One is completing and strengthening the other to pursue the ideal matters meaning that they can mutually cooperate and help each other to achieve ‘the quality of life’.

A question may emerge; Is it a fact that those conditions exist in reality?. Furthermore, we may ask: Is religion and spirituality compatible to each other ? Or are they basically different and compatible?


New Age Movement

Observers consider those spiritual teachings as “the new age movement”. However, the acceptance of the movement is still in debate among the members owing to the difference of opinion about the perception of the ‘new age’ propagation. The movement is acceptable to some people but not to others. There are also some people who positively observe the movement as resurgence of self-consciousness which suits their current needs. Some just stand neutrally - observing and monitoring. Some other people, on the contrary, feel anxious and pessimistic assuming that the ’‘new age’ is actually nothing else than the ‘old age’ with the religious teachings, ancient traditions and beliefs. Giving the reason that ‘organized religion’ is inflexible, formal and dogmatic, the’‘new age’ enters new areas. Yet, it often goes too far and be experimental. This has become the concerns of people of the ’organized religion’ that the ‘new age’ will go beyond the ‘main stream’ and lost the way.

However, it is not simple to identify the ‘ideology’ behind what is called ‘new age’. Actually, the new age consists of schools, such as acupuncture, naturopathy, homeopathy, herbalism, meditation, magic, numerology, feng shui, pyramidology, chi kung, yoga , reiki and pranic healing, etc.

In fact, the purpose of the new age movement is to offer some of other alternative ways to gain the higher quality of life in addition to what are commonly available and known, such as alternative medicine, alternative of the eastern thinking and life’s style which are closer to nature.

As earlier mentioned, the respond to the new age movement is still vary. Some people are open minded and interested to learn it as they find the new teachings and techniques significant to improve the quality of life towards happiness, health, progress and peacefulness. They are aware that life is hard, full of pressure. Rationality and logic are insufficient to solve the problems. They need to enter the non-rational, unseen and invisible world. Yes, to the world of mystery where they can obtain the answers to their problems. Who knows.

Those who fell the teachings beneficiary to life, will stay in one of the teachings or even steep themselves in the other similar teachings so as to be more ‘knowledgeable’ or perhaps’‘powerful’. In contrast, there are also people who feel the teachings over-promise and under-deliver, give too much promise but less significant results. They also observe the disharmony between the virtuous teachings and the daily practice of the masters. As they feel dissatisfaction, they prefer to leave the arena. Friction, hostility, power and money struggle that are apparently against virtuous teachings still occur even in spiritual organizations.


What is our attitude?

What is the attitude that should be shown by pranic healing movement in this phenomenon?. Being unconcerned and ignoring what happen outside ? Some may consider that to deal with such matters is just a matter of wasting energy as there are still a pile of big work to do. There are always people or organization that could not accept the ‘new age’ teachings, wherever and whenever.

However, it is considerable that some of the pranic healers – especially in Indonesia–– may still experience inner struggle and anxiety in searching the ultimate truth. Most of them are, in fact, religious personalities, actively involved in their religious community, prays in the mosque, church or vihara. They are quite shocked when people stamp them as the follower of–‘new religion’. To their perception, what they are practicing is universal wisdom that contain in most of all religions and not ‘new religion’. It is a kind of character building blended with supernatural power.

The question is not about character building but the discourse on the ‘power of mind’- the incredible power gained through meditation, visualization and breathing art to create miracles. The ‘power of mind’, the ‘energy’ are considered too dominant, pushing backwards the existence of God, the Creator. Sometimes, we are over-confident with our ‘brain-power’ and ‘will-power’ that we put ‘will’ and ‘human desire’ in priority. In our religion, it is taught about ‘surrender’. “Do what You want, and not what I want”.

In our personal dialogue, we perhaps deny being one of those schools’. Pranic healing glorifies God and recognizes the God’s authority. We always say prayer for the assistance and guidance from God at the beginning of a course or healing session. It is good if it is done sincerely and not only for ritual purposes. We are taught to be humble, willing to admit weaknesses and to reflect ourselves. Is it right that searching ‘supernatural power’ too enthusiastic can even lead us entering the dangerous area?. Miracle is not only from God , but also from other neutral power, even from the dark forces.

A colleague once formulated as follows : ‘We have come into the borders. The difference between the real and unreal, between reality and imagination, seen and unseen is indistinct. So, be aware!” This could be just a caveat for us.

In our society, Pranic healing movement has a significant moral responsibility. It is expected not to become an exclusive but inclusive movement, to go hand in hand with other movement and to become salt of others. It could, by honesty, straighten what is considered wrong matters. Upwards, dealing with the vertical relation with God, we lay our hope and ask for guidance and assistance to God. We surrender and manifest gratitude only to God.

We have taken a long journey for many years. Day after day, we need to take a moment to stop, to see around and, in particular to look into our heart. Are we still stepping on the right path with a heart? Though a number of signals and queries have been forwarded, still we should not be conceited as if we know all the answers and take for granted that the problem is over. The truth that human can absorb is limited. There are always part of the truth to be neglected, possibly the ones that even the most essential.

To end my paper, may I draw a conclusion by quoting some words from Carlos Castaneda “The Teachings of Don Juan” …for me there is only the traveling on the paths that have a heart, on any path that have a heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge for me is to traverse its full length … looking, looking, breathlessly.

Thank you.

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